Stoker.



F. B. BIGELGW.

STOKER. APPLICATION FILED 1uLv19. 1915.

Patented sept. 12, -1916.

n@ i @wam fag.;

UNITED sTATEs PATENT o-EEioE.

FRANK B. BIGELOW, F DETROIT, MICHIGAN.

STOKER.

To all whom z't may concern Be it known that I, FRANK B. BIGELow,`a citizen of the United States, residing at Detroit, in the county of Wayne and State. of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements `in Stokers, of which the following is a specification.

My invention pertains to improvements in stokers in general, but refers more specifically to features of novelty and advantage in continuous-feed, sectional coal-pushers o r fuel-stokers.

In the furnacesof the V-shape Murphy type, and of other styles, a plurality of reciprocating or sliding Stoker-boxes have been employed to feed the coal to the furnacegrates, and it has been customary to advance them simultaneously and retract them in the I same manner, although' ithas been usualto provide such pushers with differential actions, that is, some would have greater strokes or ranges of movement than others.

One of the leading features of the present invention is the production ing or'stoking mechanism of this general type which will produce a substantially-continuous fuelfeed or coal advance.

A further Aobjectief the invention is the production of an appliance of this character which shall be composed of relatively few parts, economical to manufacture, and unlikely to become deranged in service.

In order that those skilled in this art may have a full and complete understanding. of

the invention and the manner in which these and other objects are obtained, I have illustrated a preferred and desirable embodiment of the invention in the accompanying drawing forming a part of this specification and to which reference should be had in connection with the following detailed description.

In this drawing: Figure 1 is a fragmentary horiaontal section through a portion of illustrate the construction; Fig. 2

Specification of Letters Patent.l

12 are also shown.

of a fuel-feedv -the widened portion 81 3 is an end view of the l it will be ob- Patentd Sept. 12, 1916,

Application mea July 19, 1915. seiai No. 40,536.

served that a fragment or portion-10 of the l fire-box inclined grate is illustrated and above this, parts of the double-arch 11 and Extended lengthwise of each side of the furnace is a fuel-magazine 13 having an open bottom or discharge mouth above a sectional coking-plate 414:, that portion of which adjacent to the irebox of the' furnaceis equipped with an air-flue 15- beneath it through which cooling air is drawn into the furnace, such air acting to prevent damage to the coking-plate and also supplying at least a portion of the oxygen for a effecting the combustion o-f the fuel. On

I employ a plurality of Stoker-boxes or fuel -this sectional dead-plate or coking-plate 1li` feeders 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, and 21, each of which is hollow and' rests upon thecokingplate as illustrated in Fig. 2 so that by its `reciprocation transversely' of the furnace and in conjunction with the discharge of fuel from the magazine, it slowly andgadually pushesthe fuel resting on the cokingplate ahead of it over the edge of the latter and on to the top portion ofthe grate. It is desirable to make this feed of coal continuous, and to eect this result, I so construct the operating-mechanism that when some of the Stoker-boxes are receding others are advancing, and while the latter are 'backing, the .former are moving forwardly, securing a substantially continuous 'feed of fuel to the grate. To accomplish this result, in this particular embodiment of the invention, I employ a crank-shaft 22 relatively slowly revolved mechanism not illustrated. This shaft has several crank-portions 23, 24, 25, and 26, and each `of the Stoker-boxes in its-interior,

is equipped with two pairs of bracedspaced lugs 27 and 28, each pair of whichreceives between them the upper-end 29 of an arm 304 of which is apertured at '32 for theaccommodation of one ofthe crank parts of the shaft. These various rock-arms 30 are fulcrumed at 33, on suitable depending brackets and the opposite sidesof their upper ends 29 are curved so as to secure.

a rocking-action on the faces-of the companion lugs or wings 27 and 28.

Assuming that the shaft 22 volving-in a clockwise direction asviewed from the front of the furnace, the bottom vof Fig. 1, the Stoker-box 16 is atl the extreme end of its inward stroke,

pusher 17is midway of is slowly reits rearward travel,

in any approved manner bythat is, from I fuel-pusher 18 is at the end of its backward movement and isjust about to begin its forward travel, Stoker-box 19 is midway of its forward movement, and boXes 20l and 21 are in positions corresponding to those of theelements 16 and 17,: or stated differently, the successive crank-portions of the shaft 22, which are 90o apart, are in operative association with the successive stokerboXes, which, as is clearly illustrated, are disposed end to end, are independent of one another, and have their own movements` determined by the .various parts of the crank-sha. InV this way, a substantially continuous and automatic feeding of the fuel to the grate over the coking-plate is obtained.

Although I have illustrated this invention as incorporated in a. furnace of the Murphy Vegrate type with fuel reservoirs or maga'- zines at its sides, it is to be understood that the invention is in no waylimited to such particular employment and that it is susceptible of use in furnaces of widely differing constructions, nor is the invention limited to the. precise and exact structural features illustrated and described, because these may be variedV within comparatively wide limits without departure from the substance of the invention and without the sacrifice of any of its substantial benefits and advantages. t

I claim-z 1. In an automatic furnace stoking device of the character described, the combination of a fuel-magazine, a coking-member adapted to receive fuel from said magazine, an'

inclined grate in association with said coking-member and adapted to receive the fuel at its upper-portion from the coking-member, a pluralityrof' groups of independent fuel-pushers arranged end to end in a direct uninterrupted series and adapted to 'feed the fuel from the magazine across 'the coking-member on to the grate, andmeans lpositions in their strokes, effecting a substantially continuous fuel feed from the magazine across the coking-member to the grate, substantially .as described.

2. In an automatic furnace stoking device ofthe character described, the combination of a fuel-magazine, a coking-member adapted to receive fuel from said magazine, an inclined grate in association with said coking-member adapted to receive the fuel at its upper-portion from the coking-member, a plurality of' groups of independentv fuelpushers arranged end to end in a direct uninterrupted series and adapted to feed the fuel from the magazine across the cokingmember on to the. grate, a. crank-shaft with crank-portions disposed at different angles, and means connecting the crank-portions of said shaft to said pushers and adapted to operate the pushers of each group continuously causing the pushers of each group' at all times to occupy successively different positions in their strokes, effecting a substantially continuous fuel feed from the magazine across the coking-member to the grate, substantially as described.

3. In an automatic furnace stoking device of the character described, the combination of a fuel-magazine, a coking-plate, a grate,

a plurality of independent fuel-pushers ar-A ranged end to end in .a direct uninterrupted series, a revoluble shaft having cranl-por tions disposed at different angles, and means operatively connecting such crank-portions to the various individual pushers, whereby to secure independent reciprocations of the latter across the coliing-plat'e' and substantially continuous fuel feed from the magazine across the coking-plate to the top of the grate, substantially as described.

FRANK B. BIGELow. 

